Former Sunderland manager Ricky Sbragai has a new role at the club. Photograph: John Walton/Empics

Ricky Sbragia is to head up a new player recruitment department at Sunderland. The club's former manager, who stepped down at the end of the season, is currently on holiday in Australia but will be working closely with Steve Bruce, his successor, once he returns next month.

"Ricky has agreed to head up a new, wider, scouting network that Steve brings to us," explained Niall Quinn, Sunderland's chairman. "Ellis Short [the club's owner] hopes we will be clever enough to trade intelligently. As long as he feels we are buying intelligently and trading smartly, and Steve has a great track record in this respect, Ellis will back us."

Yet although Short is reputedly ­prepared to furnish Bruce, previously in charge of Wigan Athletic, with up to £60m in the transfer market this summer, the Irish-American financier does not like to see his money wasted. "Steve has contacts around the world and we now have financial backing like we've never had before," said Quinn. "We trust Steve and if the deal is right we will do it. We will kick on but we will spend wisely. Steve has polished rough diamonds up in the past and we hope he will do that for us. We just hope to be clever enough to compete."

Quinn regards Sbragia – the first team coach before becoming manager last December – as a vital cog in this new ­transfer wheel. "I am not going to be interfering but I am going to make sure our recruitment structures are as good as they can be," said the chairman, painfully aware that Sunderland, in some cases, bought badly under Roy Keane's management last summer.

"We have to be smart, we will put a library together of all our thoughts we can call on at any stage and we will have meetings every Friday so everyone knows what's happening. Ricky will probably be here two or three days a week and ­travelling the rest of the time. We will be doing things a bit differently."

Bruce, on holiday in Portugal, has barely had time to get his feet under his new desk but is already heavily linked with ­potential moves for, among others, Darren Bent, Lee Cattermole and Antonio Valencia.

The Wigan chief executive, Brenda Spencer, has had "positive" talks with Roberto Martínez about becoming their new manager. Spencer is confident the Swansea manager will move to the JJB Stadium to replace Bruce following initial negotiations with Martínez after permission to speak to him was granted when a ­compensation deal was agreed.

"Talks were positive and I am confident that everything will go through," Spencer told the club's website. "There is a lot to go through and agree. Roberto and I will keep in touch over the weekend and we hope to announce something early next week."

Martínez, 35, was hugely popular in his six years as a player with Wigan from 1995-2001 and has impressed since becoming a manager two years ago. The Spaniard guided Swansea to the League One title last year and then within two places of the Championship play-offs this term.